Chapter 7
The sound of applause jolted me from my lounge chair.
“Good evening, Michelle,” Xavier purred as he slapped his hands together with one loud last clap from my balcony door.
“Oh, Xavier! Gosh… you scared me! I must’ve dozed off after I came back inside. Sorry about that,” I offered.
“I have that effect on others,” he sneered.
The ocean breeze blew a chill across my skin, carrying his haunting wolf scent.
Behind Xavier, Alexander and Raphael inhaled deeply – likely checking to see if there was anyone else in the home.
“I’m alone,” I reassured them, rising to place my novel, War and Peace, back on the shelf. It seemed like appropriate reading for a time like this.
“I see,” Xavier replied, eyeing the tome with what appeared to be amusement.
Alexander and Raphael split off into different directions to prowl through the house, unconvinced I wasn’t hiding a pack of wolves in a closet somewhere. Xavier grabbed my wrist and pulled it forcibly to his lips, gently placing a kiss on the back of my hand. An unwanted shiver raced through me.
“I’m old enough to be your mother,” I hissed, pulling my hand away.
“I’m aware,” he smiled, “Do you think I’m trying to make a pass at you Mrs. Jarvis?” he teased, releasing a low chuckle from his throat. “I’m just trying to be a proper gentleman. You know, we are from a more civil era, after all.”
“It’s Mrs. Keller-Jarvis,” I corrected.
“I’ve always wondered why you kept Kevin’s last name. Still trying to hang onto a love lost?” he questioned.
I wanted to snap, but held my tongue. It would do me no good to be anything but cooperative and pleasant. The sooner I committed to that the better if I wanted them to take me instead of Logan.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
I stepped aside, gesturing for him to enter. Though I couldn’t hear his thoughts, I could sense his mood was shifting into Alpha mode. It was an automatic reaction to quickly step into my place below his hierarchy. I couldn’t have fought the sensation if I tried; he just wielded that power over lesser shifters.
“Thank you,” he grinned. “What a beautiful home you have, Michelle. Where is Mr. Jarvis?”
“Away on business,” I replied, sensing he already knew the answer.
“I see. He’s away quite often, correct?”
“Yes, he is. Why does that matter?” I countered as politely as I could.
“It doesn’t, really matter, just curious. But I do still want to know the answer to my original question, ‘Why did you keep Kevin’s last name?’”
I felt like I wanted to shift. My body vibrated slightly, muscles tightened in anticipation, wanting to pull me into a crouching position. With one hard jerk I believed, maybe, I still had it in me to shift.
“Because,” I sighed, fumbling for a reason. “Kevin was my husband for almost one-hundred and fifty years.” It sounded like a lousy explanation even to me.
“I see. Do you still love him?” he pressed without hesitation.
“Of course,” I replied quickly.
“Then why leave him to marry Richard? A non-immortal…”
I sighed again. I wasn’t sure where his line of questioning was going but I felt the overwhelming push to do as he wanted.
“Kevin and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on how to raise Logan,” I persisted, wishing I’d just lied.
“And you think Richard has better ideas on how to raise your daughter? Your soon-to-be-werewolf daughter?”
“He allowed me to raise Logan the way I wanted to,” I explained, yet again, regretting my honesty.
“I see.” His simple response was possibly more unnerving than if he had continued to press the issue.
“Do you think he’s going to miss Logan when she’s gone?” Xavier asked as he made his way through my bedroom and into the hallway, casually inspecting my home.
“Not as much as one might think he should,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“And what about Kevin? Do you think Kevin is going to miss Logan?”
I inhaled sharply in response.
Xavier turned to squarely look at me, my face surely tormented with pain. He resumed his stroll, running his hand down the marble fireplace mantle. He stopped at a photograph of Logan and me, pulling it down from the mantle. The day… Logan and I arrived in California. The look on my face said it all: absolutely excited and completely terrified. In my mind, from that very moment on, there was no other option but to be successful with everything I did, including raising my daughter. As her entire life flashed before my eyes, I knew I’d done well.
“Please don’t ask me if I’ll miss her,” I whispered.
“Oh, we both already know the answer to that question, Michelle.”
I closed my eyes, willing myself to not burst into tears.
“She’s grown up since I saw her last,” he remarked contemplatively.
I kept my eyes closed, wishing I was still on the beach, toes in the water, and this was just a bad dream.
“Where is our Logan now?”
I finally had enough composure to face him. “She’s still my Logan, not ours,” I objected. He was clearly testing me but I had no idea why. I needed to stop letting him provoke me.
“I was looking forward to finally, and formally, meeting the teenage version of her this evening… spending some time getting to know her.”
“The house is clear, Xavier,” Alexander announced, interrupting Xavier and I standing toe-to-toe in the living room.
I watched a ripple roll through Raphael as he held off shifting, waiting for Xavier to do nothing more than give him a sign to do so.
“Good,” Xavier replied, staring me down.
I snatched the photo from his hands, positioning it back in the exact same place next to all her other photographs.
“Shall we?” Xavier asked, gesturing toward the dining room.
A twinge of panic nagged at me and I looked longingly at Logan’s photos. I wanted to take them all with me.
Though I knew she’d take advantage and stay out late, there was a small chance she would come home early if she and Brody got into another fight. Xavier would surely take her if she did.
The clock directly above us chimed midnight. Alexander and Raphael both glanced up, slightly in acknowledgment.
“The stroke of midnight, that hour when we’re most alive,” Xavier began, closing the distance between he and I. “It stirs something in my blood. Immortal, we’ll see an infinite number of midnight hours. Its darkness is to us what the dawning light of a new day is to mortals. Our souls may be created with the same set of blue prints,” he paused, relishing his own words, “but ours was painted with darkness the moment we were born into immortality.”
I stared at Xavier, trying to convince myself his words weren’t true. But even after willfully distancing myself from the shifter world, I couldn’t disprove a single word. I too felt more alive during the midnight hour than I did the other twenty-three hours of the day.
“I do some of my best work at midnight,” he added, sending the hairs on the back of my neck to attention.
“So what prompted this early visit?” I asked, trying to build the courage to offer him my plan. The midnight hour seemed like the opportune time to lay it all on the line.
“I think we need to discuss a few things,” Xavier replied, giving Alexander and Raphael a silent indecipherable look.
Is Kevin right? Is this a mistake?
“Very well,” I mumbled, as Alexander escorted me toward the dining room.
Xavier and I took seats at opposite ends of the table while Raphael and Alexander closed the doors. I realized, too late, there was no other way out.
Are they trapping me? What’s going on?
“Where’s the letter you wrote to Logan?” Xavier asked.
I reached down into my pocket with dismay, pausing to look up at Xavier again,
“How did you know I wrote Logan a letter?”
A knowing grin spread slowly across Xavier’s face.
Oh. My…
“Yes, Michelle, I know your plan, all eleven years in the making.”
A warm sensation pricked across my skin, my body began to tremble.
“I’m disappointed, Michelle. Just because you don’t care to listen to other’s thoughts doesn’t mean we all feel the same way. I, for one, have a kingdom to protect. Such a huge oversight on your part.
“And I have to say what you’re probably already on the verge of thinking, Kevin was right. And… had you listened to him, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
I instinctively looked at the guarded doors. The only way you’re coming out of this alive is if someone is on the other side waiting to rescue you.
Alexander and Raphael both scoffed in amusement.
“So, what’s next?” I pressed, trying to recollect myself as if this had been a part of my plan. I didn’t have the element of surprise but that didn’t mean this wouldn’t work. Xavier had surely kept me alive for a reason.
“There is no ‘next’ Michelle.”
I inhaled sharply, my mind going completely blank.
“This is where it ends,” he said matter-of-factly, eyes sparkling with delight as he intently watched me and my plan crumble into pieces.
I stood up quickly, forcing Alexander and Raphael into a crouching position to shift.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered, “we can still keep our original deal,” I pleaded, not trying to hold back the tears that were falling from my eyes.
A devilish grin spread wildly across his face.
The look sent sparks igniting against the warming sensation spreading across my body. I willed myself to shift but nothing happened, the vibration had disappeared.
“The nice thing about being Alpha, Michelle? You can change your mind. You are delusional to think that I’d ever let someone as potentially powerful as Logan walk free. I need her and quite frankly she needs us – she needs to be surrounded by pack leaders, Alpha Royalty.”
“You’re the one that is delusional!” I wailed, “She doesn’t need you, Xavier. She needs her family. She needs to be with the ones who will protect her and love her. All you want to do is use her for your own personal gains.”
“Ha! She “…needs to be with the ones who will protect her and love her...?” You’ve all been lying to her, Michelle. Every single day of her life. Do you really think she’s going to want anything to do with you once she learns the truth?”
“Well, do you really think she’ll want to come with you after she learns the truth about you?” I countered, knowing a statement like that could mean death for Logan.
“She doesn’t have a choice, Michelle. And now, no longer do you.”
Everything began to move in slow motion: my breath slowed, my heartrate softened, and my stomach began to deliberately twist and turn. I watched as Xavier deliberately blinked, giving the signal. Alexander and Raphael shifted and for the first time, I saw every detail of their shift gradually unfold – beautiful and captivating. With one hard jerk, their wolf-form ripped through their skin, evaporating any sign of human; clothing fell, shredded, to the floor.
I was paralyzed – my body betraying my mind’s only desire: Shift and run.
The two wolves growled at either side of me, their hot breath steaming the back of my clenched fists. Xavier stepped in and my knees grew weak as I felt the urge to get down on all fours and bow to his hierarchy: I desperately fought the instinct.
“You’re making a mistake,” I said with bated breath.
“I don’t make mistakes,” he replied, taking another step toward me, forcing my need to cower to grow stronger. “I make very concise moves. Quite honestly…” he paused, as if to collect his thoughts, “I never intended on keeping up my end of the deal because I knew you would never keep yours.”
“I was… I swear.”
“Doubtful. I, of course, wanted nothing to do with raising a child so you won that battle. After nearly seventeen years, I’ve been more than patient but now my time has come.”
“But, she’s…”
“Plus,” Xavier cut in while casually removing his suit jacket, digging something out of his pocket, “I can’t believe you actually thought I’d go for your plan. You’re not the one I want, Michelle. I have no use for you.”
I released a jagged breath. This is it.
Xavier drew a loaded glass syringe into view. The potion was undoubtedly silver death.
Please shift, please shift… My body quivered with grave hesitation.
Xavier snatched me into an embrace, wrapping his arms tightly around my body. I inhaled: sweet pine and damp earth fainted into the background as a new scent came to the surface – blood.
Xavier slowly moved his mouth toward my ear making certain not to loosen his grip as he whispered, “I hope your ‘back-up plan’ was making arrangements for your own funeral, Michelle.”
I’m sorry, Kevin and Logan, I thought, unable to release the words.
A sharp, stinging pain slowly pierced the base of my neck. My vision went blurry and I instantly started to slide toward the floor. A violent, burning sensation spread like wildfire through my veins. I closed my eyes to stop the spinning, tears spilling over the edge. My body was paralyzed by death, my mind and broken heart trapped inside – a torturous way to die.
This is going to be painful.